The Panzer - Page 3 - Drifting forum

LiGhTnInG · 13-09-2008, 19:05

you keeping the car now dude?

Sea Squirrel · 14-09-2008, 09:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20vWill

Yep, E36 diff mountings suck. Basically you need either poly or solid diff mounts. It is the movement of the rubber in these 3 bushes which often loosens up the nose-mount bolt, and combined with some torques often shears it! Good luck drilling it out the diff case, I'd recommend a machine shop! Mine was the same and was a nightmare.

Mine is fully poly'd at the back now, including the 3 diff mounts. Works great. No more slop and no more sheared bolts!

Re the rubbing, yeah, with all that load they would rub, since your ride height would be pretty slammed at that point! Ah sorry man, I thought you were going to be drifting on the 17's and chavving it up home on the 19's!

No, the whole point was I can't afford to retread the 19's so they were going to be sold on. As the tread was barely legal anyway I thought it'd make more sense to destroy them instead of a perfectly good set of tyres. Doesn't matter, done now, problems can be solved.

Sam - yeah, I'm going to keep it I think. Makes more sense to bash up a slightly buggered one anyway than find a perfectly good shell and smash it up. Plus this way I don't mind trying to make carbon wings myself and crap like that.

Just see how it goes. Polybushed subframe and diff on the way.

Sea Squirrel · 22-09-2008, 15:02

Much better. It no longer looks like some 'Crooooooz Tyte Yo' heap.

Just need to get along to Hammond to get the arches sorted to stop the rubbing I'm getting on bumps and then we're good.

Turns out that not only is it on lowering springs but the rear is also on some very tired looks Koni Yellow shocks. Still waiting to hear back from DW but I'm hoping that I can get these replaced fairly quickly. If not then they'll certainly do until I'm better.

Next on the list: Further investigate the suspicious (new) rattle that's developed from the engine. Guy I just spoke to believes it might be little ends. This concerns me.

Original rattle turns out to be the brake pad bracket. Will be sorted this week.

Bunny · 22-09-2008, 15:12

Rattle might be Chain Tensioner mate.

My old BMW did it. Rattled quite bad

Sea Squirrel · 22-09-2008, 15:19

That'd be a hell of a lot better than anything internal. Only bit that worries me is that it does sound suspicously like my s14 did before that shat itself. Seems to still pull absolutely fine though. Got a couple of bits it's booked in for later in the week and the guy's going to have a proper listen then. Can't hear it at all until it's above 2500-3000 so I'm just not sure.

Bunny · 22-09-2008, 15:23

Fingers crossed then mate. I was really worried about mine but after changing it it was spot on

.

BMW engines are very stong so i'd have thought it would be more likely but you never know.

Just don't drive it till it's checked just in case.

20vWill · 22-09-2008, 19:33

Erm it looks savage on the BBS.

S50's are quite noisey engines, they have a lot of valve train noise and VANOS units grumble and rattle, all pretty normal. If your valve clearences need doing (they normally do!) you'll have plenty more noise to add to precedings too.

But I do hope your bottom end is OK.

Sea Squirrel · 22-09-2008, 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20vWill

Erm it looks savage on the BBS.

S50's are quite noisey engines, they have a lot of valve train noise and VANOS units grumble and rattle, all pretty normal. If your valve clearences need doing (they normally do!) you'll have plenty more noise to add to precedings too.

But I do hope your bottom end is OK.

Yeah, does look significantly better. You were absolutely right on the money describing the originals as 'BM Bummer' compared to these.

Got it going back in to the garage later this week anyway, means the 'engine' guy at the place I'm taking it can have a listen and determine what it is. I really bloody hope it's not anything seriously internal. Just have to trust the knowledge of this garage. How would I be able to tell the difference (in laymens terms) between valve clearance noise and bottom end noise?

20vWill · 22-09-2008, 20:35

Top end will be quieter and a higher pitch. Valve clearance induced noise ranges from rustling to tapping to rattling! It's hard to explain, but easy to hear. Bottom end death rattle is bad news though. I hope your guy is trust-worthy as I have heard of many garages saying stuff like "your main bearings have gone" when they haven't at all... Fingers crossed for you lad.

stubb · 22-09-2008, 20:49

having just read this thread i must be a chav type bmw bummer . . lol nice lookin dakar you goin to make like the luka marko vid now then. was it really cheap then , is the vanos ok

20vWill · 22-09-2008, 20:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by stubb

having just read this thread i must be a chav type bmw bummer . . lol nice lookin dakar you goin to make like the luka marko vid now then. was it really cheap then , is the vanos ok

Typical chav bummer asking questions about VANOS!

stubb · 22-09-2008, 21:03

ha ha was skip reading the thread while convincing my 3 yr old he did want to go to bed again the same time as doing french homework with my 12 yr old,,, do i look like i speak french , ill get my coat

Sea Squirrel · 22-09-2008, 22:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20vWill

Top end will be quieter and a higher pitch. Valve clearance induced noise ranges from rustling to tapping to rattling! It's hard to explain, but easy to hear. Bottom end death rattle is bad news though. I hope your guy is trust-worthy as I have heard of many garages saying stuff like "your main bearings have gone" when they haven't at all... Fingers crossed for you lad.

He seems ok. Hell, he even gave me a free BBS spanner for those alloys

Didn't try and tell me something was wrong until I specifically went back upon hearing that noise. Will get a second opinion, ideally a trustworthy DW member, but I think the guys OK to be honest.

Two_Sheds · 22-09-2008, 23:20

Looks well saucy on those BBSs, good buy, well done.

Sea Squirrel · 25-09-2008, 17:59

Right, my savings/card just took a massive raping but there's still a couple of bits that need sorting.

Need to get hold of: Steering spacers, rear upper mounts, front evo uppermounts OR something else to help get some front camber. Anyone got any sources on the above?

Will post up pics with info of current purchases once everything's done.

Ben

Edit: Also looking for a cheap steering wheel and snap-off boss for the car. Anyone got anything then fire a PM my way or stick it up in here, ta.

20vWill · 25-09-2008, 19:09

Steering spacers - PM Chizfab on here.

Rear upper mounts - PM me! I have the solution!

Evo upper mounts - BMW or ECP, they aren't too dear new.

Extra front camber - My kit will be alive again next week as I await the new bolts!

Sea Squirrel · 25-09-2008, 19:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20vWill

Steering spacers - PM Chizfab on here.

Did last week, still waiting for a reply

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20vWill

Rear upper mounts - PM me! I have the solution!

PM on it's way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20vWill

Evo upper mounts - BMW or ECP, they aren't too dear new.

So contact BMW direct? That's not a problem, need to get hold of a trim piece I ripped off and lost at Pod aswell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20vWill

Extra front camber - My kit will be alive again next week as I await the new bolts!

Let me know details and price as soon as possible please dude.

Sea Squirrel · 27-09-2008, 02:23

Small update:

The good news first. Please excuse the crappy pics as they're from my phone. Didn't expect to do this today so didn't take a camera. Or some before pics. Just trust me when I say that this has made about 3/4 inch to an inch total difference to the arch... turns out that looks like a lot.

Only done the fronts like this today as a. was using a piece of scaffold and the heat gun from work, and b. the back's quite obviously mostly filler. It's booked in to be done properly next week. Going to cost a shedload, but totally worth it to make it look right.

The front wheels are now covered by the arch completely where as before they weren't even in line with the outside of the tread pattern. Very happy with it.

The bad news:

On the way to the cinema to see Death Race this evening the engine decided to let go. Managed to nurse it into Tesco's carpark as was just outside at the time and, low and behold, there was an AA guy there on his break. He thinks it sounds like the top end went. Either oil starvation (although the oil seemed fine upon checking the level) or something just let go. The engine was rattling and squeaking like a goodun. Towed me down to the garage that's doing the mechanical work on the car (me with a spanner is like a chimpanzee with a TV remote... something'll happen, but probably not what you actually want or expect) and they'll be told of the problem when they get to work tomorrow.

Hopefully, that can be sorted along with the fitting of all the parts I've just ordered and then some time around the 8th there's going to be a massive update with all the work done and the car properly aligned.

We'll see.

d-anie-l · 27-09-2008, 09:25

bad luck man.

Sea Squirrel · 26-11-2008, 14:43

Right, first of a few updates to come in the next couple of weeks. This one is a bit of a saga but with a promising end.

I picked the car up two nights ago after the garage had been in posession of it since the last post (10 weeks, but who's counting

). In that time there was quite a lot of work to be getting on with as has been outlined before.

This included, for those who can't be arsed to read back or can't remember:

Replacement engine
Poly-bush the subframe
Replace the anti-roll bars with eibach items
Fit Evo front topmounts
Fit Will-spec rear topmounts + reinforcement plate
Sort brake caliper rattle
Redo rear brake lines
Fit Poly Diff mounts
Fit Chizfab-spec steering spacers

There was a week or so of umm-ing and ahh-ing where in nothing got done as we were trying to decide whether to replace or rebuild the engine. In the end we went for replace and got hold of a decent example in the shape of an 80K miler from a crash damaged late non-evo car. Once the engine turned up they went about the work of removing the original from the car. At this point we discovered that the original engine support was cracked around the mount points to the extent that it wasn't attached to the rest of the car. The engine had, in fact, only been being held in place by the diff mounts and the ancilliaries. This, as you can probably guess, hadn't done them any favours. While the engine was out we also discovered that the reason I'd been feeling like the car was down on power was the clutch. There was none. The rivets were showing signs of wear it had been worn down so far.

We also made the exciting discovery that the steering column wasn't attached to the steering rack properly. The last person to re-fit it all had decided that using the BMW spec splines and bolt combination was for butt shagging quitters and had decided that their method of 'hit it with a hammer till it sort of stays in place' was a much better idea.

Oh, and the radiator was full of barely rad-welded holes and, unsurprisingly, had received some viscouse fan damage from where the engine was moving about so much.

So, now, add to the above list:

New steering rack connection
New engine support crossbeam
New engine mounts (ordered Poly items)
New gearbox mounts (ordered Poly items)
New radiator
New clutch

The front ended up looking like this:

Which is a pretty serious improvement over the nicely holed items that were in there before.

New radiator arrived:

Which was nice.

Oh, and all of the bushes turned up eventually:

AKG Motorsport engine and gearbox mounts

AKG Motorsport Diff mounts

Some of the large number of Powerflex Poly subframe bushes

Chizfab-spec steering spacers which the garage managed to lose before fitting

Will-spec rear suspension mounts + reinforcement plates.

Now, the reason it's all turned into a bit of a saga, on top of all of the problems that turned up during stripping the car apart we also found that, due to the shunt it had taken earlier in it's life, not a single bolt hole was lined up 100 percent anymore and whoever had fixed it had failed to re-attach half the parts properly anyway. The garage that have been doing a lot of the work for me (my spanner-ability is pretty damn limited) failed to tell me until the end of last week that they couldn't get any of the bolts undone at the back of the car. So, after 10 weeks I get the car back Monday night. It has a new engine, new radiator, new front anti-roll bar + poly bush, new steering column, new engine support, new poly engine mounts and new poly gearbox mounts. It DOES NOT have any of the rest of the poly-bushing done, the diff mounts done, the rattling brake calipers done or the brake lines done.

To top everything off nicely I drive the car away from the garage, get 5 miles down the road and the oil warning light comes on. I pull over and stop, get out, look underneath and discover that it's shed every last drop of oil all over Dover. Get it towed back to the garage (it's now been away from it for a total of 1 hour) leave it there over night, go down the next day, discover that the O-ring on the oil cooler had given way. We swapped that over only for the engine to develop a misfire.

Replacement spark plugs later and I finally have it back in my grubby mits but, again, it's still not damn well finished. It will be though, and soon, or I'm going to lose my mind.

The moral of this story boys and girls, if you're going to buy a BMW M3 then check the bloody thing over really, REALLY well because it'll cost a lot in both time and money to get it sorted.

22-09-2008, 15:02	#43 (permalink)
Sea Squirrel Jeff Mills Is Watching! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Dover, Kent Posts: 1,458	Much better. It no longer looks like some 'Crooooooz Tyte Yo' heap. Just need to get along to Hammond to get the arches sorted to stop the rubbing I'm getting on bumps and then we're good. Turns out that not only is it on lowering springs but the rear is also on some very tired looks Koni Yellow shocks. Still waiting to hear back from DW but I'm hoping that I can get these replaced fairly quickly. If not then they'll certainly do until I'm better. Next on the list: Further investigate the suspicious (new) rattle that's developed from the engine. Guy I just spoke to believes it might be little ends. This concerns me. Original rattle turns out to be the brake pad bracket. Will be sorted this week. Last edited by Sea Squirrel : 22-09-2008 at 15:06.

25-09-2008, 17:59	#55 (permalink)
Sea Squirrel Jeff Mills Is Watching! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Dover, Kent Posts: 1,458	Right, my savings/card just took a massive raping but there's still a couple of bits that need sorting. Need to get hold of: Steering spacers, rear upper mounts, front evo uppermounts OR something else to help get some front camber. Anyone got any sources on the above? Will post up pics with info of current purchases once everything's done. Ben Edit: Also looking for a cheap steering wheel and snap-off boss for the car. Anyone got anything then fire a PM my way or stick it up in here, ta. Last edited by Sea Squirrel : 25-09-2008 at 18:13.

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13-09-2008, 19:05	#41 (permalink)
LiGhTnInG Doricomotion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: DriftRacing.co.uk Posts: 8,752	you keeping the car now dude?

22-09-2008, 15:12	#44 (permalink)
Bunny FAIL Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Milton Keynes Posts: 2,181	Rattle might be Chain Tensioner mate. My old BMW did it. Rattled quite bad

22-09-2008, 15:19	#45 (permalink)
Sea Squirrel Jeff Mills Is Watching! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Dover, Kent Posts: 1,458	That'd be a hell of a lot better than anything internal. Only bit that worries me is that it does sound suspicously like my s14 did before that shat itself. Seems to still pull absolutely fine though. Got a couple of bits it's booked in for later in the week and the guy's going to have a proper listen then. Can't hear it at all until it's above 2500-3000 so I'm just not sure.

22-09-2008, 15:23	#46 (permalink)
Bunny FAIL Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Milton Keynes Posts: 2,181	Fingers crossed then mate. I was really worried about mine but after changing it it was spot on . BMW engines are very stong so i'd have thought it would be more likely but you never know. Just don't drive it till it's checked just in case.

22-09-2008, 19:33	#47 (permalink)
20vWill ...... Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Doon Sooth Posts: 3,856	Erm it looks savage on the BBS. S50's are quite noisey engines, they have a lot of valve train noise and VANOS units grumble and rattle, all pretty normal. If your valve clearences need doing (they normally do!) you'll have plenty more noise to add to precedings too. But I do hope your bottom end is OK.

22-09-2008, 20:35	#49 (permalink)
20vWill ...... Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Doon Sooth Posts: 3,856	Top end will be quieter and a higher pitch. Valve clearance induced noise ranges from rustling to tapping to rattling! It's hard to explain, but easy to hear. Bottom end death rattle is bad news though. I hope your guy is trust-worthy as I have heard of many garages saying stuff like "your main bearings have gone" when they haven't at all... Fingers crossed for you lad.

22-09-2008, 20:49	#50 (permalink)
stubb tail slider Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: the other side of oxford Posts: 95	having just read this thread i must be a chav type bmw bummer . . lol nice lookin dakar you goin to make like the luka marko vid now then. was it really cheap then , is the vanos ok

22-09-2008, 21:03	#52 (permalink)
stubb tail slider Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: the other side of oxford Posts: 95	ha ha was skip reading the thread while convincing my 3 yr old he did want to go to bed again the same time as doing french homework with my 12 yr old,,, do i look like i speak french , ill get my coat

22-09-2008, 23:20	#54 (permalink)
Two_Sheds chaplad Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Fife, Scotland Posts: 592	Looks well saucy on those BBSs, good buy, well done.

25-09-2008, 19:09	#56 (permalink)
20vWill ...... Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Doon Sooth Posts: 3,856	Steering spacers - PM Chizfab on here. Rear upper mounts - PM me! I have the solution! Evo upper mounts - BMW or ECP, they aren't too dear new. Extra front camber - My kit will be alive again next week as I await the new bolts!

27-09-2008, 02:23	#58 (permalink)
Sea Squirrel Jeff Mills Is Watching! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Dover, Kent Posts: 1,458	Small update: The good news first. Please excuse the crappy pics as they're from my phone. Didn't expect to do this today so didn't take a camera. Or some before pics. Just trust me when I say that this has made about 3/4 inch to an inch total difference to the arch... turns out that looks like a lot. Only done the fronts like this today as a. was using a piece of scaffold and the heat gun from work, and b. the back's quite obviously mostly filler. It's booked in to be done properly next week. Going to cost a shedload, but totally worth it to make it look right. The front wheels are now covered by the arch completely where as before they weren't even in line with the outside of the tread pattern. Very happy with it. The bad news: On the way to the cinema to see Death Race this evening the engine decided to let go. Managed to nurse it into Tesco's carpark as was just outside at the time and, low and behold, there was an AA guy there on his break. He thinks it sounds like the top end went. Either oil starvation (although the oil seemed fine upon checking the level) or something just let go. The engine was rattling and squeaking like a goodun. Towed me down to the garage that's doing the mechanical work on the car (me with a spanner is like a chimpanzee with a TV remote... something'll happen, but probably not what you actually want or expect) and they'll be told of the problem when they get to work tomorrow. Hopefully, that can be sorted along with the fitting of all the parts I've just ordered and then some time around the 8th there's going to be a massive update with all the work done and the car properly aligned. We'll see.

27-09-2008, 09:25	#59 (permalink)
d-anie-l ? Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 1,156	bad luck man.

26-11-2008, 14:43	#60 (permalink)
Sea Squirrel Jeff Mills Is Watching! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Dover, Kent Posts: 1,458	Right, first of a few updates to come in the next couple of weeks. This one is a bit of a saga but with a promising end. I picked the car up two nights ago after the garage had been in posession of it since the last post (10 weeks, but who's counting ). In that time there was quite a lot of work to be getting on with as has been outlined before. This included, for those who can't be arsed to read back or can't remember: Replacement engine Poly-bush the subframe Replace the anti-roll bars with eibach items Fit Evo front topmounts Fit Will-spec rear topmounts + reinforcement plate Sort brake caliper rattle Redo rear brake lines Fit Poly Diff mounts Fit Chizfab-spec steering spacers There was a week or so of umm-ing and ahh-ing where in nothing got done as we were trying to decide whether to replace or rebuild the engine. In the end we went for replace and got hold of a decent example in the shape of an 80K miler from a crash damaged late non-evo car. Once the engine turned up they went about the work of removing the original from the car. At this point we discovered that the original engine support was cracked around the mount points to the extent that it wasn't attached to the rest of the car. The engine had, in fact, only been being held in place by the diff mounts and the ancilliaries. This, as you can probably guess, hadn't done them any favours. While the engine was out we also discovered that the reason I'd been feeling like the car was down on power was the clutch. There was none. The rivets were showing signs of wear it had been worn down so far. We also made the exciting discovery that the steering column wasn't attached to the steering rack properly. The last person to re-fit it all had decided that using the BMW spec splines and bolt combination was for butt shagging quitters and had decided that their method of 'hit it with a hammer till it sort of stays in place' was a much better idea. Oh, and the radiator was full of barely rad-welded holes and, unsurprisingly, had received some viscouse fan damage from where the engine was moving about so much. So, now, add to the above list: New steering rack connection New engine support crossbeam New engine mounts (ordered Poly items) New gearbox mounts (ordered Poly items) New radiator New clutch The front ended up looking like this: Which is a pretty serious improvement over the nicely holed items that were in there before. New radiator arrived: Which was nice. Oh, and all of the bushes turned up eventually: AKG Motorsport engine and gearbox mounts AKG Motorsport Diff mounts Some of the large number of Powerflex Poly subframe bushes Chizfab-spec steering spacers which the garage managed to lose before fitting Will-spec rear suspension mounts + reinforcement plates. Now, the reason it's all turned into a bit of a saga, on top of all of the problems that turned up during stripping the car apart we also found that, due to the shunt it had taken earlier in it's life, not a single bolt hole was lined up 100 percent anymore and whoever had fixed it had failed to re-attach half the parts properly anyway. The garage that have been doing a lot of the work for me (my spanner-ability is pretty damn limited) failed to tell me until the end of last week that they couldn't get any of the bolts undone at the back of the car. So, after 10 weeks I get the car back Monday night. It has a new engine, new radiator, new front anti-roll bar + poly bush, new steering column, new engine support, new poly engine mounts and new poly gearbox mounts. It DOES NOT have any of the rest of the poly-bushing done, the diff mounts done, the rattling brake calipers done or the brake lines done. To top everything off nicely I drive the car away from the garage, get 5 miles down the road and the oil warning light comes on. I pull over and stop, get out, look underneath and discover that it's shed every last drop of oil all over Dover. Get it towed back to the garage (it's now been away from it for a total of 1 hour) leave it there over night, go down the next day, discover that the O-ring on the oil cooler had given way. We swapped that over only for the engine to develop a misfire. Replacement spark plugs later and I finally have it back in my grubby mits but, again, it's still not damn well finished. It will be though, and soon, or I'm going to lose my mind. The moral of this story boys and girls, if you're going to buy a BMW M3 then check the bloody thing over really, REALLY well because it'll cost a lot in both time and money to get it sorted.